The present invention relates to a method of supporting a wiring design of a linear structure, such as a wire harness, a supporting apparatus using the method, and a computer-readable recording medium.
A vehicle and the like is mounted with a plurality of electric parts, which are connected together by a so-called wire harness as a linear structure in which a plurality of linear members, such as electric wires, communication wires and the like are bundled in a binding member, such as an insulating lock and the like, and an outer armoring member, such as a tape. As shown in FIG. 1, connectors 2a, 2b, 2c, 2d joined to electric parts and the like are provided at end portions of a wire harness 1. Also, various kinds of clips 3a, 3b, 3c, 3d, and a branch point 4 are provided at intermediate portions of the wire harness. The branch lines of the wire harness 1, which form the sections of the wire harness 1 which extend from the end portions thereof to the branch point 4, have basically different number and kinds of structural filament members. Therefore, the thickness, length, density and the like of the branch lines are various.
The design for wiring such a wire harness in a vehicle and the like has been made in many cases by making calculations by using multipurpose analytic software called CAD (Computer Aided Design) and CAE (Computer Aided Engineering), or on the basis of a designer's experience and perception. However, since a linear structure, such as a wire harness and the like is diverse, merely using the multipurpose analytic software and merely relying upon a designer's experience do not meet the purpose, i.e., it is very difficult to design the linear structure by accurately anticipating the rigidity of the linear structure with respect to the bend and distortion of each portion thereof.
Under the above circumstances, the applicant of the present invention proposed by JP-A-2004-139974 and JP-A-2004-139570, and so forth a method of supporting an optimum wiring design by calculating a predictive shape of a linear structure with the physical property of a linear structure, such as a wire harness, i.e. a material thereof and the rigidity thereof with respect to the bend and distortion of each portion thereof taken into consideration, and by displaying the condition of the linear structure of gradual variation of from an initial shape to a predictive shape thereof, by utilizing a finite element process.
Here, the documents cited in the specification of the present invention will now be shown below.                JP-A-2004-139974        JP-A-2004-139570        “Matrix Finite Element Process” written by B. Nass, published by the Brain Book Publishing Co., Ltd., Aug. 10, 1978, p. 7 to 15.        “Mode Analysis and Dynamic Design” written by Hitohiko Yasuda, issued by the Corona Co., Ltd., Nov. 10, 1993, p. 54 to 56.        
In order to practically provide the wire harness of an initial shape in a vehicle body as shown in, for example, FIG. 1, the connector 2a is first fixed to a predetermined portion of the vehicle body. An operational procedure for then fixing the connector 2b, then 2c, and then 2d of the wire harness to the vehicle body, i.e., an operational procedure for forcibly displacing the connectors of the wire harness 1 in order to predetermined portions of the vehicle body is taken.
As a result, the shape of the wire harness 1 is changed in multistages accordingly in the following manner, i.e., from the initial shape to another shape and kept as it is up to the time at which the connector 2a is fixed, then to another shape and kept as it is up to the time at which the connector 2b is fixed, and then to another shape and kept as it is up to the time at which the connector 2c is fixed.
The methods disclosed in JP-A-2004-139974 and JP-A-2004-139570 are very excellent methods in that the methods are capable of accurately calculating a predictive shape of a linear structure with the physical property of a linear structure, i.e. the material thereof and the rigidity of each portion with respect to the bend and distortion thereof taken into consideration, and accurately displaying the condition of the deformation of the shape. However, these Patent Documents do not refer to the predicting of the shape of the linear structure on the assumption that the above-mentioned multistage deformation occurs. In a practical operation, the wire harness in an initial shape reaches a final shape via a multistage deformation in most cases. Accordingly, the development of a wiring design method based on this assumption and capable of accurately predicting the shape of a linear structure is waited for.